Stanford continues its wildly popular course on building Internet empires. Every week, investor Sam Altman brings in new Silicon Valley celebrities to spill novel secrets. Recently, they held a special two-week series on how to build great culture.

In 1999, online forum UrbanBaby sprung up and quickly caught the attention of the wealthy mothers of New York City, who used it to anonymously vent, gossip, and swap important advice such as the ethical limits of bribery to get their kid into private school.

On October 11, famed accelerator Y Combinator hosted 1,700 entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs (such as high school and college students) at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif. for Startup School.

A few years ago, when Apple added Siri to the iPhone, talking to inanimate objects with batteries to make them do stuff was pretty novel. Today, thanks to companies like Wit.ai, even kids at hackathons are showing off weekend projects that are voice-controlled.

While it might not seem so to outsiders, Y Combinator’s new Developer Tools Request for Startups (RFS) is a big deal. (Editor’s note: The deadline to apply is tomorrow.) This is a request from one of the biggest tech incubators for startups that make developer tools, and it’s an important sign of the increasing value and prominence of developer products and the companies behind them. And I’m thrilled about it.

Food companies, restaurants, caterers, and corporate kitchens have struggled to find and manage their suppliers in a digital way. Most are still using paper, the Yellow Pages, and telephone calls to do that.

Do you use Genius (formerly, RapGenius) to search for rap lyrics? Do you use CrunchBase to look up an interesting company you’ve just read about, or perhaps Product Hunt to search for emoji-related products?

When New York City teacher Charles Best started DonorsChoose — a nonprofit that lets teachers crowdfund projects and supplies for their classrooms — in 2000, philanthropy was still done the old-fashioned way: Wealthy folks went to charity galas, local organizations held food drives in parking lots, and technology like websites, smartphones, and online payments had no presence.

Yesterday, a new crop of startups from Y Combinator’s (YC) accelerator presented to a full house in the hopes of investment, press, and general buzz, and among them will be some non-profit companies. After YC accepted its first non-profit, Watsi, in its Winter 2013 class, it’s been steadily growing the number of non-profits in its classes, and Zidisha had the chance to participated in the Winter 2014 class.